Garlic Jr from the Movie Dead Zone
Garlic Jr. is an evil demon from the Dragon Ball Z series and first appeared in the first Dragon Ball Z film, Dead Zone. His father was imprisoned by Kami in the realm of darkness, leaving Garlic Jr. with a deep feeling of resentment and desire for revenge. Though defeated, he later reappears in the anime in the gap between the Freeza and Trunks sagas, and battles once more against the combined efforts of Kuririn, Piccolo, and Son Gohan. The puns on the names of Garlic Jr. and those affiliated with him are fairly straight-forward; in this case they are all derivatives of spices. He oddly resembles Emperor Pilaf, only more evil and cunning. Garlic Jr. is also noted as the only villain who was actually successful in wishing for immortality using the Dragon Balls (this seems to be the most commonly sought after wish by most of the villains in the series, second being the much related youth).
Storyline
A squat and off-putting looking dwarf of a demon, Garlic Jr. is the only villain in the DragonBall saga ever successfully granted eternal life by the Dragon Balls, which his trio of lackeys, Nikki, Ginger, and Sansho, had gathered from around the globe. In the process they kidnapped Gohan for the four-star ball sewn onto his cap and hurt Chi-Chi, thus earning the ire of Son Goku. Delirious with joy after the granting of his wish, Garlic Jr. is then accosted by Goku and Kami, and resolves to settle an old score with the latter. Many ages ago, it was Kami who defeated his father Garlic for the throne of Kami, vanquishing him and his demon hordes as a result. Now fearing nothing thanks to his newfound immortality, Garlic's son intended to return the favor.
Garlic Jr. transformed
While Garlic Jr. is preoccupied making good his grudge with Kami, Goku engages his minions, who bulk-up twice their size in the ensuing battle. Not long after Kuririn and Piccolo (who had survived an earlier attack by the villain's underlings) make their appearance, and the three henchmen meet an early end. Piccolo sends Sansho flying into the ceiling then fries him with a ki blast for a painful death. Goku kills Nikki and Ginger with one directed Kamehameha, blowing them up into each other. Beset now by the combined might of Earth's greatest fighters, Garlic Jr. goes from miniature to gigantic, shifting into a brutish second form able to handle both Goku and Piccolo at once. It's a back-and-forth confrontation; being eternal the heroes can do no real damage to Garlic Jr., and Goku and Piccolo are too resilient to fall to any of the monster's attacks. Livid, Garlic Jr. opens up the portal known as the Dead Zone, intending to suck his enemies into a void whence they could never return. Upon seeing his father and friends in danger, the power latent within Gohan explodes, and enraged he attacks and overwhelms an awed Garlic Jr.
While he might live forever, Garlic Jr.'s powers are finite, and Gohan knocks him into his own vortex to be trapped for all eternity.
Anime series
Years later, Garlic Jr. escapes imprisonment after the source of his power, Makyo-sei (literally Devil Star Planet, called the Makyo Star in the English dub), comes close in axis to Earth. Garlic Junior gathers his team of demon henchmen named the Four Monarchs ("Spice Boys" in the FUNimation dub). The Monarchs include Gashyu, Vinegar, Tado, and Salt. Garlic Jr. then schemes to take control of Earth's population by use of the Aqua Mist ("Black Water Mist" in the FUNimation dub), which caused those who breathed it in to become mindless demon slaves under his rule. If kept unchecked the mist's effects would be irreversible after twenty-four hours. When Kami and Mr. Popo investigate, they are captured, shrunk down, and trapped in glass bottles by Garlic Jr.'s henchmen. With only Gohan and Kuririn left to fight for earth, Garlic Jr. and his cronies have a decisive advantage, especially since Piccolo was now a brainwashed servant under Garlic Jr.'s control. Complicating matters was Makyo-sei - orbiting ever closer towards Earth, it served to amplify Garlic Jr. and his henchmen's already considerable power. Vegeta has a minor role in this saga but does not fight Garlic Jr. because he is searching the galaxy for Goku after the end of Freeza.
A fight ensues in Kami's lookout between Gohan, Kuririn, and the Monarchs. When Kuririn is damaged in the fight, Gohan powers up and obliterates Tado and Salt with extremely powerful blasts. At this point, Piccolo is seen to be a rival and has presumably been turned into a slave of Garlic Jr. As Piccolo begins to attack Gohan, Kuririn tries to intervene, only to be bitten by Piccolo and be taken over by the mist himself. However, this is all a ruse. When Piccolo - who was immune to the mist all along - bit Kuririn, he told him to act as if he was possessed as well, so they could get in arm's reach of the bottles containing Kami and Mr. Popo. Kuririn and Piccolo begin their assault against Gohan, and when Garlic Jr. tires of the show and instructs them to finish him off, they instead smash the bottles, releasing them both.
With the advantage and hostages lost, Garlic Jr. again converts to his second form. Gashyu and Vinegar also pump up their bodies thanks to the power of Makyo-sei. At the same time, Kami and Mr. Popo make their way into the inside of the lookout, to use Ultra Holy Water to reverse the effects of the Aqua Mist. En route to the opening at the bottom of the lookout (where all the four winds of Earth blow) they must pass through the Shinsenkai (essentially a graveyard for former Kami) where the spirits of the former gods confront Kami and begin to assail him. Above, Piccolo (who is linked to Kami) starts to lose strength as a result of the beating, and Garlic Jr. gains the upper-hand. In the meantime, Gashyu and Vinegar manage to topple Kuririn with ease and this ignites Gohan's anger once more, resulting in a chaotic battle between Gohan and the two henchmen at the same time. Gohan releases a seismic two-sided blast which makes both Gashyu and Vinegar explode at the same time in midair. As the battle progresses, Garlic Jr. reopens the Dead Zone, with Kami and Mr. Popo successfully being granted access to the Ultra Holy Water and nullifying the Aqua Mist's effect on Earth. No longer handicapped by Kami's pain, Piccolo regains the ability to fight, and he and Kuririn fly up to meet Garlic Jr. and distract him. Gohan then fires a powerful Masenko into Makyo-sei, destroying it and leaving an emaciated and powerless Garlic Jr. to fall prey to his Dead Zone once again, this time with no hope for return, doomed to spend an eternity in complete nothingness.
Despite being the only movie villain featured in his own saga, he is not present in Akira Toriyama's original manga and is instead a brainchild of Toei Animation. As such, he exists in franchise canon only in the anime. Many fans believe there to be a major plot inconsistency here, as Kuririn was not aware of Gohan's existence until the events of the Saiyan Saga, yet the DBZ movie where he makes his first appearance supposedly takes place before then. However, this is a plot hole strictly in the two English dubs of the movie, where Goku refers to Gohan clearly as his son in front of Kuririn. In the Japanese version he
Video games
Unlike many of his fellow movie villains who appeared in the English dub of the Dragon Ball Z movies and television series, Garlic Jr. was absent from most recent video games, with the Legacy of Goku series skipping his saga entirely. However, Garlic Jr. is a playable character in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2, available in both his base and post-transformation forms. Garlic Jr. has an attack involving the Dead Zone, however he uses it a bit differently, instead of projecting the portal for an oppponent to get sucked into, he actually throws it at his enemy, trapping the enemy inside it temporarily as it takes a large amount of the victim's health.
Voice actors
Garlic Jr. was voiced by Akira Kamiya in the movie, Shigeru Chiba in the TV series, Don Brown in the Ocean dub of the original feature and Chuck Huber in the FUNimation re-dub of the film and all other appearances.